The Word of Notch has a follow up on his well publicized overture to Double Fine productions about possibly supplying funding for Psychonauts 2. In spite of recent indications that this was a serious offer, this update is a bit of a reality check, as evidenced by the post's "Hype" title. Notch now says he actually "semi-jokingly" tweeted about funding a sequel to the adventure game, and shows a little naïveté about the attention his public actions attract: "Point is, stop hyping over this, internet! You’re going to scare me into doing things secretly instead of being open and transparent via twitter. I am incredibly scared of the very real risk of people feeling let down just because I took a chance at something that doesn’t end up panning out." He also offers what he sees are the facts in this situation, as he seems them:

Tim and I haven’t spoken much at all other than a couple of emails.

We mentioned meeting at GDC, I hope that will happen

I assume Double Fine will be very busy for many months with the kickstarter project

The budget for doing a Psychonauts 2 is three times higher than my initial impression

A couple of other parties have mentioned also being interested in investing in it

I would not be investing in this as a charity. It would be because I think the game would be profitable

And naturally, I wouldn’t want to have any creative input in the game. It would be purely a high risk investment in a project I believe in.

That whole "sight unseen" issue is why I think kickstarter is an iffy prospect.

However, Tim Schafer just got $1.6 million plus on kickstarter, sight unseen, and I've backed over a thousand dollars on kickstarter on projects that are sight unseen, the highest being $350.

You do understand how kickstarter works, right? It's all sight unseen. Which is why only big names are getting big money in gaming on kickstarter. Wasteland 2 is enough for me to kick in $100. Of course, for $100 I'd get a copy of the game and some other random junk. But I'd do it based upon belief in the idea. And because I like backing shit on kickstarter.